About Me

Bilingual Roman Catholic priest of the Southern Dominican Province. The "homilettes" on this website are completely the work of Fr. Mele. He may be contacted at cmeleop@yahoo.com.
Telephone: (415) 279-9234.

According to one journalist a ferocious debate is taking
place about food.The topic is how to
assure that everyone eats when the world’s population rises to ten
billion.The journalist calls the two
sides of the debate “wizards” and “prophets.”Wizards predict that technological manipulation of present crops will be
able to feed such great numbers.Prophets believe that people will have to change eating habits if
everyone is to have enough to eat.They
call for eating less meat and more grains and vegetables.Jesus may be seen as weighing in on the issue
in today’s gospel.

The people want Jesus to perform a miracle.Knowing that he has just fed over 5,000, they
want him to give another such sign.But they
are missing the point of Jesus’ feeding.More than bread, they need to trust in Jesus’ word if they are to grow in
life.By following his teachings, they
will come to possess even eternal life.Thus
Jesus shows himself in a sense to be both a wizard and a prophet.As a prophet, he teaches people to abandon
old ways of jealousy and rivalry. As a wizard,
he tells them of a radical way to love one another.

Jesus’ word has been embodied in the Eucharist.When we take his body and blood, we commit
ourselves to his ways.The food itself
has enormous value.It provides us the
grace to let go of hard feelings so that we might take care of one another.In this way we follow Jesus to eternal life.